There’s no need to struggle and stress about exercising. Even though it may seem a little overwhelming, developing a workout routine is not as difficult as it looks. You just need to be creative and find the motivation to start your journey. No gym? No problem! In this article, we are going to walk you through the best at-home exercises to stay healthy.
Let’s start right away!
At-home exercises: Staying active in the comfort of your own home
The World Health Organization recommends including any sort of physical activity throughout your day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) this is the recommended exercise time to implement per week…
You can choose how to achieve this weekly goal. Also the best part is that you don’t necessarily have to travel to have a good workout session. You can work out perfectly in the comfort of your own home! This can be convenient for those with a hectic schedule, don’t feel comfortable breaking a sweat in front of other people, or don’t want to pay for a gym membership. Wait, and if you still think that you need to spend money because “I don’t have any home workout equipment”; don’t worry. All you need is your own body weight. Remember, the goal here is to stay active to be as healthy as possible to feel better. Let’s take a look at the best at-home exercises you can include in your daily grind.
Important: Before starting any physical activity —including the at-home exercises in this article—it’s recommended to consult with a physician to avoid the risk of injury while working out. If you lead a relatively sedentary life without exercise, have any medical conditions that predispose you to heart problems (such as lung disease, kidney problems, or diabetes) then it is highly recommended that if any of these are the case, you have a check up with your doctor before starting any new physical regimen.
Best at-home exercises to stay healthy
Stand up because it’s time to move your body! these are the Best Exercises you can do at-home
In order to follow the World Health Organization recommendations, we are going to divide the exercises into the two mentioned categories:
- Moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity
- Vigorous-intensity physical activity
Let’s start with moderate-intensity.
Moderate-intensity aerobic exercises
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
So, basically, anything that agitates you enough to accelerate your breathing.
Walk around your house!
This may not sound impressive at all, but it does make a difference. If you don’t have a treadmill, you can simply dedicate 30 minutes of your day to a fast-paced walk around your home. If you think 30 minutes is too much, just split the time between 3 10-minute intervals throughout your day. This does wonder for those who spend too many hours sitting at a desk. Do it while your on your on the phone talking or texting.
Tip: If you’re working from home during COVID, take at least 10 minutes to stand up and walk at least twice during your work hours. Try to avoid sitting for more than an hour. Stand up and stretch at least every 45 minutes.
Dancing
If you like music and swaying to the beat of a good tune, dancing might be an option for you — definitely one of the best at-home exercises for sure!— this is something you can do by yourself or with someone else. Go ahead, tune in to your favorite song and start dancing! There’s not much science to it, feel the rhythm and have some fun. If you need more guidance, you can play a dancing-cardio video. There are a lot of great options out there on youtube or other platforms. For every single level, from beginners to advanced dancers.
The benefits of dancing frequently are plenty!
- As a cardio activity, it helps to improve the condition of your heart and lungs
- Increase your muscle strength and tone
- Weight management
- Strong bones and reduced risk of osteoporosis
- Improved coordination, agility, and flexibility
- Better balance and stability
- Physical confidence
At-home exercises: Bodyweight workout routines
If you are really committed to lead an active life, you can start following an at-home sort of workout program. A workout routine is a perfect way to include physical activity in your day. You can include it in the mornings or at night according to what works best for your schedule. Here’s an example of how your workout routine can look:
Warm-up
Warming up is the safest way to start. This will help you prevent injuring and will prepare your muscles and joints for real action.
Option 1: Walk around your house for 10 minutes.
Option 2: 50 jumping jacks – 1-minute rest (at your own pace, start slow if needed, and rest longer if necessary). Repeat this two more times.
Option 3: A 10-minute dance session. Don’t worry! You don’t need to mimic Beyonce. A simple dance session is more than enough to warm you up. The goal is to start moving to increase blood flow to those muscles and make them more pliable.
Routine
- 10 Squats
- 10 Lunges (each leg)
- 20 jumping jacks
- 10 Crunches
- 1-minute arm Circles
- 1-minute Kickboxing Punches
- Hold a plank as long as you can
Rest 1-minute in-between exercises and repeat the circuit 2 more times (for a total of 3 times). Don’t forget to drink water to stay hydrated!
| Note: this is just an example. You can make modifications as you need. |
If you are not fond of jumping jacks, or have knee issues, you can replace them with toe-touch jacks that are much kinder to axial joints. In fact, this type of exercise helps you to improve your balance and stability without overly stressing and impacting your knees. By eliminating the jumping element of this exercise, you can still obtain the benefits of the movement but more gently.
How to do Toe-jacks?
The best way to do toe-jacks is by standing tall with your feet slightly apart. Then, proceed to bring your arms up to your side above your head, forming sort of an X shape with your body, while tapping your right foot out to the side with your left hand. You must maintain your weight on your left leg during the movement.
bring your left foot back down to the floor, bringing your arms back down to your sides, and repeat the movement but with the other leg and opposite hand. It’s like dividing a regular jumping jack into two separate movements, one by one.
Repeat the movement 10 times per leg (rest 30 sec) and then repeat the set 2 more times.
There are more exercises you can include in your routine. The idea is that you find which ones you like and if you get bored you can rotate in different movements. This way, the whole experience will be more enjoyable, and you will be able to make it a habit easier.
At-home exercises you can include in your workout routine:
The decision is yours to make! Include easy movements to start building resistance and strength. The next two exercises are going to sound a little bit unusual, but they are an extremely practical and effective tool if you want to meet your daily goal.
Pushing your lawnmower!
Yes, it does count as a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Don’t think twice before taking care of your yard. It will benefit not only your home aesthetic but also your fitness. A 30 min session is more than enough to meet the daily goal.
Housework
The same principle as the lawnmower, doing housework is not an easy task, especially when you are a mom. Remember that heavy old vacuum you have in your closet? Well, let me tell you that you can kill two birds with one shot because movements such as vacuuming and sweeping floors can count as moderate-intensity aerobic exercises if you put extra energy into them. Go ahead and start cleaning vigorously more often! The next workouts are more conventional.
Yoga!
When it comes to building strength in your body, these two options are excellent for you. You can start including some yoga sessions in your day, especially in the mornings. This will benefit you not only physically but also mentally.
According to Johns Hopkins, these are the 9 benefits of doing Yoga:
- Improves strength, balance, and flexibility
- Helps with back pain relief
- It can mean more energy and brighter moods
- Can ease arthritis symptoms
- Benefits heart health
- It relaxes you to help you sleep better
- Connects you with a supportive community
- It helps you manage stress
As you can see, there are a lot of benefits from the practice of a 5000 year old Indian tradition to consider. Think about giving it a try! Now its time to switch to the more intense exercises —Vigorous-intensity aerobic exercises.
In short: these are the moderate-intensity exercises you can do at home to meet the weekly physical activity goal
- Walk around the house
- Dancing
- Bodyweight workout routine
- Yoga
- Housework
- Push the lawnmower
Vigorous-intensity aerobic exercises
At-home exercises: Jumping Rope
Jumping rope is a great cardiovascular exercise you can do from anywhere. If you don’t have a jumping rope around, you can use a regular rope or a cable you no longer use. 15-20 minutes of jumping rope is an adequate alternative to jogging and running. As a matter of fact, a Research of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation published in 2013 found that men who spent 10 minutes jumping rope every day improved their cardiovascular fitness as much as men who spent 30 minutes jogging. If you are not fond of jogging, this option may work but also be aware that it can put impact on your knees akin to running and jogging.
HIIT exercises
This is the part where things get more intense. High-Intensity Interval Training is a great training option that includes cardiovascular conditioning and strength building. This type of workout combines short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest or lower-intensity exercises. Generally, HIIT routines are composed of 3 or more sets of 4 or 5 different movements that must be executed vigorously during 40 to 60 second intervals, followed by a rest period of 20 or 30 seconds.
This is not an exact match. The formula can change. But the principle is always the same: Intense work during a short period of time followed by a resting period and repeat. HIIT routines normally have a duration of 15 or 20 minutes. Of course, it can go beyond that. But the great thing about this type of workout, just as jumping the rope, is the time effectiveness. In a short period of time, you get excellent results!
At-home exercises: Other Vigorous-intensity workouts
- Heavy yard work like continuous digging or hoeing
- Going up and down the stairs
There you go! Don’t think a gym is the only way you can start exercising more. There are multiple things you can do in the comfort (and safety) of your own home that can help you lead a healthier life. Before wrapping this up, let’s take a look and review the pros of physical activity and the cons of sedentarism.
At-home exercises: Pros of Physical Activity and Cons of Sedentarism.
Pros of Physical Activity
Doing any physical activity regularly can have benefits for your health. Whether its walking, cycling, doing sports, or active recreation, physical activity is essential for your well-being.
According to the World Health Organization, these are the benefits of doing any sort of physical activities regularly (In General):
- Improves your muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness
- Your bone and functional health will improve
- You will potentially reduce the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, various types of cancer (including breast cancer and colon cancer), and depression
- Reduced risk of falls as well as hip or vertebral fractures
- Healthy body weight maintenance
When it comes to adults and older adults, physical activity can reduce:
- The risk of all-cause mortality
- Risks of cardiovascular disease mortality
- Hypertension
- Site-specific cancers (bladder, breast, colon, endometrial, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric, and renal cancers)
- Type-2 diabetes
And, can improve:
- Mental health
- Cognitive health
- Sleep
For pregnant and postpartum women
Physical activity also has great benefits for pregnant and postpartum women (Including the health of the fetus)
- Reduced risk of pre-eclampsia,
- Lesser chances of gestational hypertension,
- 30% reduced risk of gestational diabetes
- Prevents delivery complications
- Fewer risks of postpartum depression and newborn complications.
As you can see, this is a long list. Now you see why it is so important to stay as active as possible. Now let’s see what the cons of constant inactivity are
Cons of sedentarism
In adults:
- all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer mortality
- incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type-2 diabetes.
Finally: Best at-home exercises to stay healthy
There you go! These are some of the exercises you can do at home. Staying active and including physical activity throughout your day doesn’t have to be challenging. Even though it sounds difficult to reach the 300 min goal of aerobic exercises, the most important thing is to adapt your daily routine and include more movement during your day, and for this, you don’t actually need a gym. You can have everything you need at home. That’s enthusiasm, drive and yourself.
From the stairs instead of the elevator to starting some yoga in the mornings, you decide how to do it. Your 8-week journey to a healthier life starts here. At NubianDoc, we are more than happy to be part of a healthier life movement. You can visit our blog if you want to learn more. Don’t hesitate to contact us and, see you next time!
